Technical Note SB43: Wood dust explosion suppression case studies

Explosive organic dusts (carbon based dusts such as wood, food, sugar, pharmaceutical, etc.) combust similarly to each other. While each may have its own characteristics, each will achieve its MAX pressure during the combustion process. The speed at which they reach this MAX pressure will differ between explosive dusts based on chemistry, particles sizes and moisture content.

Typical wood dust has a Kst of around 120bar*m/s and a Pmax of 8.2barg.

Typical sugar dust has a Kst of around 150bar*m/s and a Pmax of 8.5barg.

In a 200ft3 (5.66m3) vessel, the wood dust would reach its Pmax of 8.2barg in ~122ms. The sugar dust would reach its Pmax of 8.5barg in ~100ms. The average blink of eye is ~250ms. As we can see, both dusts would reach their MAX pressure within the blink of an eye.